As a young man Carl Fredrickson meets and falls in love with an adventure-seeker balloon-seller named Ellie. They both have dreams of travelling to a Lost Land called Paradise Falls in South America, following in the footsteps of their hero, famed explorer Charles F. Muntz. Muntz was declared a faker when he returned from a previous trip with the skeleton of a 13-foot tall bird, and has since disappeared whilst searching for a living specimen to prove that he was no fraud. Some 70 years later, sadly Ellie has died but Carl remembers the promise he made to her. Carl is old and infirm; he needs a cane to walk with and is forced to leave his house to go into a retirement home (kind of sad plot for a Disney-Pixar movie huh…?)

You play as Dug flying a biplane and protecting Carl and Russell’s balloon-house from the attackers. The dogfighters’ attack has popped enough balloons to bring the house down short of Paradise Falls, and so lost in the jungle Carl and Russell are once again rescued by Dug the talking dog, who helps them through some tricky sections and again becomes a playable character during some levels of the game. They discover that while Dug is a friendly and helpful dog, there’s also another pack of less-than friendly talking dogs roaming the jungle that mean them harm. It turns out that the talking dogs do so via speech-synthesis modules built by Muntz, who has become paranoid to the point of madness due to his solitary years seeking the rare bird and has built a HUGE dirigible airship with which he guards what he sees as his territory.

The gameplay is mostly a matter of platform climbing and jumping. Carl can clamber up onto low ledges by using his walking cane, and can then pull Russell up to that level. Russell can sidle along narrow ledges and heave Carl up with a rope. Russell can grab things so that Carl can swing across gaps, and sometimes they have to push heavy obstacles together to move them. Dug can crawl through small holes and pull levers to allow Carl and Russell through and can also tow the non-swimming Carl through watery sections. UP can be played solo or with a second player to help. Russell catches bugs in his net for badge points, and grumpy old Carl squishes them with his walking cane – it’s typical of the “cheerful kid versus the grumpy old guy” vibe of the movie.

If you play alone the AI will control the other player, following you wherever possible and moving them into position for a co-op move, like a pull-up to a higher ledge or standing on a plank ready to be catapulted over a ravine. Solo the game plays well for the most part and the AI does a good job, but there are a few hiccups when you’ll have to take over the other player (tap RB) and move them where you want them, or move them out of the way so your character can do what they need to do. The camera zooms out as the two characters get further apart and usually does a good job of showing you what to do and where to go, but on one occasion playing as Dug I did manage to lose Carl and Russell off-screen and had to take control of them because the AI couldn’t figure out how to get them back in view. UP really comes into its own when you play it co-op with a second player, and in common with many big name first and third person shooters and action adventures I can see more and more games including co-op modes like this. It’s great fun to play a game through with a friend or relative, and its gentle difficulty level and simple puzzles make it an excellent game for kids to play together, or Mum/Dad to play through with the kids. The fact that it surrenders a relatively easy and painless 1000 gamer points should also be noted by gamer points-hungry Mum/Dads out there.

As you progress you’ll unlock the game’s concept artwork from Heavy Iron Studios and some rather cool test animations from Pixar - that look great, but only serve to show up the gulf between the quality of the movie’s visuals and the game.

UP is a nice little game that is fun for one but best with two. For me, the developer didn’t really try hard enough to complement what is a rather different kind of Pixar movie. It has some nice co-op ideas and will provide the Pixar-loving family with a few hours hassle-free gaming, and that’s about it.